The declining island economy

On reading the press release from Alasdair Allan MSP I was very angry; then I laughed at the imbecility of it ; then I just got depressed at the lack of vision and understanding.

The closure of LHC is such a major issue, that Mr Allan announces, that

"Along with my colleague Angus MacNeil MP we will now be seeking an urgent meeting with the Enterprise Minister, Jim Mather MSP, to seek ways forward for the islands economy."

We also need to look at the fact that the motion in the Scottish Parliament in September 2008 was supposed to raise the profile of the issue, but that one of key parties has totally ignored their responsibilities.

S3M-2604 Alasdair Allan: Lighthouse Caledonia—That the Parliament expresses its serious concern at the news that Lighthouse Caledonia, one of the biggest private employers in the Western Isles, is to consider the future of its fish processing and related business within the Isles, potentially with an impact on over 100 jobs, and believes it is now imperative for the Parliament, the Scottish Government and its agencies, the local authority, the workforce and the company itself to work tirelessly together to ensure that this essential business stays in the Western Isles.

I refer, of course, to the Government, who have been conspicuous by their absence. Perhaps someone can do an FoI request to find out if the Government were even asked to be involved, and what questions were asked of Mr Mather, and what responses he gave?

"I am also going to raise a question at First ministers (sic) questions as to what can now be done to boost the island economy. This is a big blow to the economy of the Western Isles."

Wow! That will have them shaking in their shoes. Asking a soft question to get bland answers is not a substitute for action.

With the Harris Tweed industry scrabbling around for £350k to fund a scheme to keep weavers active (another issue in which the Government have been asked to take action by our MP and MSP, and where they have been invisible) the likely answers are all to clear. And depressing

Having chased away the biggest single private sector investment ever proposed for the islands - I refer of course to large scale windfarms - it is difficult to envisage the civil servants or the Minister now listening to pleas about disinvestment and economic hardship.

Now, I know that there are some people out there who oppose windfarms, but I already gave a simple solution. If the moor is that important, then our MP and MSP should have been arguing that refusal of planning permission for LWP should have been matched by a Government fund to allow us to protect the environment in the islands - moor, birds and humans - which would have given us the pot from which to provide an economic buffer.

But, unable to see beyond the knee-jerk opposition, instead of trying to get the best deal for the islands, the MP and MSP campaigned so that the intrinsic value of the moor was given away, development precluded, and the islanders are left with fewer ways to generate income. And they call that success.

Now HIE and the Comhairle have called for large scale windfarms to be approved on the island without delay, as being the only way to regenerate the economy.

I disagree. Yes, disagree. (Sharp intake of breath all around!)

At the moment, the economy is too fragile to become overly dependent on only one source of employment, and for us to be at the mercy of one oligopoly or developers. What we need is solutions that will develop the economy in a number of areas, across various sectors, professions and trade, so that we have diversification not consolidation.

Large wind farms are PART of the answer, and can aid the diversification, but the lead time is too long, and we need working solutions in the next few months.

If the local economy is to survive this downturn, and come out of it stronger, we need to find way to develop and encourage the local economy (and that means the private sector) to diversify an ultimately it will require massive targeted capital expenditure programmes to retain the skills.

Sadly, all the Comhairle capital expenditure is going on the new schools project.

Equally sadly, I cannot see either our MP or MSP actively engaging the Government and lobbying for their constituents.

I predict - for the umpteenth time - that the economic and community benefit strategy that is due to come from the Government is going to be vague, filled with generalisations and niceties, and deliver nothing for the islands. Except possibly the Eishken windfarm, which would be a major embarassment for our MP and MSP.